Vandal New York

My friend Mari and I recently checked out Vandal New York, a restaurant from the same group that owns Tao, Stanton Social, and a bunch of clubs in New York and Las Vegas. The restaurant door is hidden behind a flower shop, Ovando, that sells beautiful orchids, succulents, and tulips:

The restaurant has a fun vibe and is a really large space so the weeknight we went, there were a lot of corporate parties going on. The menu is based on the chef’s travels around the world and has a lot of “street food” options, so we decided to get a little bit of everything (Mari is a vegetarian so there were some things we couldn’t get, but that’s okay!)

We started with crispy and creamy potatoes with a spicy bravas sauce and aioli:

Cubes of potatoes that were fried and had a very crispy shell and topped with a spicy tomato sauce with mayo – yum! Everything is served once it’s ready in the kitchen so we got the potatoes first and then tacos:

The Chilean sea bass tacos were topped with avocado, chipotle cole slaw, and salsa diablo. Mari and I both liked the dish – the fish was well seasoned.

Next, my favorite dish of the evening – spicy Korean rice cakes with mizuna kimchi:

The rice cakes were very chewy (but not overcooked) and had a nice kick with the kimchi.

Another favorite – the Johnny cakes:

Neither of us had ever heard of Johnny cakes before, but they’re pancake style savory cakes – Vandal makes them with broccoli and cheese and tops them with more cheese sauce.

Another fun dish that tasted really good (and I had to eat it all because Mari doesn’t eat meat!) – the New York hot pretzel with steak tartare:

The New York pretzel is flattened and the larger surface area is used as a cracker for the steak tartare with kobe beef and also had mustard seeds to add more flavor. The pretzel was a large serving so it’s definitely a good dish to share (all of the dishes were good to share so the restaurant is good for a group).

For dessert, we ordered the Vandal s’mores:

The dessert is served with graham cracker ice cream, toasted marshmallows and a chocolate cookie/cake.

We liked the restaurant a lot and thought the food and service were both great. The crowd was corporate/high schoolers but I think it might’ve been the night we went – if you check out their instagram, it looks like there are always parties there!